


We’re going to have to tell them

by motherbearof3



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-18 09:03:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12385065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/motherbearof3/pseuds/motherbearof3
Summary: Secrets, sticky notes and a slip of the tongue.





	We’re going to have to tell them

**Author's Note:**

> So this is what happened today when I had to stay home from work to wait for the hot water heater repairman. 
> 
> Just a little one shot of fluff because I can't get her calling him Rafa last week (S19 E3) out of my head and it would make me so happy to know that there was a little something going on behind everyone's backs.
> 
> If I butchered the Spanish, my apologies, it's straight from Google Translate.
> 
> Rated Teen for one f-bomb.

“We’re going to have to tell them.”

“What did you say, _mi amor_?” Rafael Barba leaned his head out of the bathroom where he was brushing his teeth before bed.

Olivia Benson was standing at the dresser looking in the mirror, wondering not for the first time, how she had allowed herself to slip up during the meeting that day in her office. She had called him Rafa. Not Barba. Not Rafael, even, which her team had heard her say on occasion. No, she had called him Rafa. _Rafa_!

No one had caught it, she didn’t think, as there had been no stoppage in the discussion. No one but him of course. He had turned his head toward her, his courtroom face slipping just for a millisecond to look at her with a loving gaze. Her heart had skipped a beat as soon she uttered the second syllable, but didn’t let on she’d said anything out of the ordinary.

They had been an item, if you wanted to use that term, for almost a year now. But they tried very hard to be discreet and postpone the inevitable disclosure to both 1PP and the District Attorney’s office. Neither one wanted to admit it, but they were both afraid of what would happen when they did. Not to their relationship, of course. They would be 85 and still squabbling. But to their careers. Sure, either one could move out of SVU and still be successful, but that was where both their hearts were.

It was a waste of money, since he spent more nights than not at her place with her and Noah, but they still maintained separate residences. Often he arrived after the little boy was asleep though, since he was five now and quite bright, and they didn’t want him to have a slip of the tongue around his other SVU ‘uncles’ and ‘aunt’; and was dressed for work by the time the boy awoke, to make it appear as though he had just stopped by on his way. Occasionally, they asked Lucy to stay the night so Liv could go to his apartment. She and his mother were the only ones who knew and both were happy to be sworn to secrecy.

But it was getting harder and harder to keep the secret. In the last month Liv had taken to putting sticky notes up around the apartment  -- in Spanish, since Noah was learning to read -- with reminders. The one on the mirror she was looking into was bright pink and was written in bold black letters: **_Quítate el anillo._ ** * There was another beside the door where she kept her keys. It was bright green and said **_Deja tu anillo en casa_ ** _.**_

Rafael’s arms wound around her waist from behind and his green eyes met her brown in the mirror. He kissed the side of her neck and she let her head drop back onto his shoulder so he could repeat the action. After a third kiss, he turned her in his arms and said,

“I asked you what you said, _mi amor_. But you looked very deep in thought.”

“I said we’re going to have to tell them. I fucked up today at work when I called you Rafa.” She sighed and rested her forehead against his. “And these damn sticky notes. I hate them.”

She sounded both angry and sad at the same time and he couldn’t stand her being unhappy. He reached around her to the mirror and took down the pink sticky note, crumpling it in his hand and tossing it down on the dresser. Then he raised her left hand to his lips and kissed her fourth finger where a diamond sparkled.

“Then we’ll just tell them.”

 

* **_Quítate el anillo =_ ** Take off your ring.

** **_Deja tu anillo en casa_ ** _=_ Leave your ring at home.


End file.
